New Slide Scanner - No Idea What to Do

PasturesNew

I just bought this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=224226

So, there's a CD and I installed the device driver and there's also some photo software from ArcSoft installed (Photo Impression 6).

The instruction booklet with the scanner tells me to install these, but then there are no clues how to scan slides in.

So far I have got 3 mounted slides in the slide holder, I've got the actual slide scanner plugged into my USB port and the instructions say to load the photo software (all OK), then to click on Get Photos (all OK), then it says to choose "Acquire ..." but there are two choices, Film and Photo, so I choose Film.

Another box then opens up where I can select the device driver (there's only one and it's in the box greyed out though), then I can click on Calibrate or Acquire.

So, I shoved the slide inside the scanner and no idea what to do. Pressing Calibrate does nothing, pressing Acquire does nothing, pressing the Copy button on the scanner itself does nothing.

Anybody got any clues for me?

What I am trying to do is to scan mounted slides in, using the scanner ... it shouldn't be rocket science should it.

PasturesNew

I think it doesn't work with Vista... that might be the problem.

Damned nuisance .... stuff is a nuisance. I'll try it on my XP PC... later. Lost the will to live right now as I've been fiddling with this for 2 hours

Mattjimf

Judging by what is on that link, it only works on XP.

PasturesNew

OK, so, installed it now on XP Pro. Rebooted the PC after installing the Photo software, as it told me to.

Now when I try to launch the photo software I get a Microsoft C++ Runtime Libraary, Runtime Error on file photoiumpression.exe. It said "abnormal program termination".

I've uninstalled/reinstalled everything again and still get this.

Any clues?

PasturesNew

Just uninstalled it, rebooted, reinstalled it, rebooted. Tried again, still getting the error message, so "just trying again" won't fix it ... the bugg4h.

So, enough installing/uninstalling... etc. Googling now for solutions, all I can find are more people with the same problems.

Is there any other (free) photo software I could use to drive this scanner maybe?

Mattjimf

There are drivers you could try here - http://www.vupointsolutions.com/downloads-drivers.asp
not sure which one you need. They are right at the bottom of the page.
There are also a good thread here - http://forums.techguy.org/digital-photography-imaging/626156-vupoint-solutions-film-scanner.html about it all.

My advice is if it's this much of a pain to use, take it back and get a refund.

PasturesNew

Mattjimf wrote: »

There are drivers you could try here - http://www.vupointsolutions.com/downloads-drivers.asp
not sure which one you need. They are right at the bottom of the page.
There are also a good thread here - http://forums.techguy.org/digital-photography-imaging/626156-vupoint-solutions-film-scanner.html about it all.

My advice is if it's this much of a pain to use, take it back and get a refund.

Cheers, I'll try those.

Taking it back is easier said than done. It's Xmas, I have it here, I need to get cracking as I am trying to scan in about 1000 slides for somebody else while staying at theirs.

And who knows, maybe all of them are a pain. Never used one before. So I have to keep trying everything/anything to get it to work.

PasturesNew

I've tried reading through, some of it makes sense, I've tried those bits. Some of it doesn't...

One bloke talks of driving the scanner directly, but doesn't say how one would do that.

4 hours now ... still no further forward. Wish I'd never thought this was a good idea now, but committed as scanning these in is somebody's "xmas present", so it has to be done now ... and visitors arriving in 2 days who will expect to see progress/scans/images....

ManAtHome

Try IrfanView for scanning http://www.irfanview.com/

Theory is, scanner will be installed as a TWAIN device (don't ask...), and most piccie editing software should be able to start it up. You'll then get whatever driver has been installed for the scanner which will give you various options (preview, change scan size, scan etc).

The next hurdle will be the film stock if you're scanning negatives - quite a difference between the orange mask/'backing' of (eg) Kodak, Fuji, Ilford etc. Often printed on the neg strip - if not, it's a try/compare cycle to get the most relistic colours.

PasturesNew

Tried all the USB ports .... 3rd one has it showing up in Device Manager, so now managing to scan them in through Device Manager.

Thanks for your help ... this is a workable solution.

PasturesNew

ManAtHome wrote: »

Try IrfanView for scanning http://www.irfanview.com/

Theory is, scanner will be installed as a TWAIN device (don't ask...), and most piccie editing software should be able to start it up. You'll then get whatever driver has been installed for the scanner which will give you various options (preview, change scan size, scan etc).

The next hurdle will be the film stock if you're scanning negatives - quite a difference between the orange mask/'backing' of (eg) Kodak, Fuji, Ilford etc. Often printed on the neg strip - if not, it's a try/compare cycle to get the most relistic colours.

I'll try this, maybe tomorrow. Got a stack of cassettes containing slides here going back 50 years... stack of cassettes is 3' high